Choosing the best cross-browser testing platform from among the many available options can be difficult. Cypress and Playwright are two notable alternatives to Selenium that are gaining ground in the automated testing space and empowering development teams to properly test according to their own requirements.
If you’re trying to decide between Playwright and Cypress as a cross-browser testing solution for your app, this article will provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision. We’ll examine each testing platform in further detail and tell you what we think is the automated testing tool of choice for software engineers and programmers.
What Is Playwright?
One of the most popular options for cross-browser testing is Microsoft Playwright, which was created by the same people that gave you Puppeteer. Playwright and Puppeteer are very similar; however, Playwright has superior support for Chrome, WebKit, and Firefox browsers.
The playwright is a cross-platform framework that works with macOS, Linux, and Windows. It uses a unified API to communicate with popular continuous integration (CI) servers like Jest, Mocha, and Jasmine. The writer has the ability to switch between languages with ease.
The playwright has additional features such as:
- Mobile Safari may mimic Google Chrome on Android in all but name.
- Desktop and cloud-based mobile rendering engine.
- Automatic waiting, web-first assertions, and tracing.
- The practice of monitoring network traffic in order to sabotage or otherwise ridicule network requests.
- Standard support for the mouse and keyboard.
- The capacity to store and retrieve data.
- A playwright is an excellent option for developers and testers looking for a versatile JavaScript-based framework for mobile and online applications because to its numerous useful features.
What is Cypress?
Cypress is not based on Selenium like many other automation tools are, hence it does not have the same limitations as Selenium. Complete system verification is its main concern. All of the tests are written in JavaScript. Cypress is an end-to-end testing framework that features its own runner and reporting. Important browsers like Firefox, as well as Chrome, Edge, and Electron Apps (which are all based on Chromium), are supported. The software includes a recording feature that can capture video and screenshots while testing is being carried out.
Cypress 10, which was released not too long ago, is an update to the popular testing platform that includes new tools including component testing, a migration assistant, and a redesigned user interface.
Cypress also has the following additional features:
- Time travel mode
- Real-time debugging
- Monitoring and testing of APIs for control of the network.
- Modern methods of stumbling, mocking, and testing parts.
- Compatible with a variety of add-ons, including AXE’s accessibility tools.
The new Cypress 10 version added more functionality. With this latest release, Cypress has further established itself as a go-to JavaScript-based web test solution for development teams, engineers, and testers.
Playwright Vs Cypress
While both Cypress and Playwright are end-to-end testing systems, they approach testing in quite different ways. Cypress provides a folder structure containing sample files that can aid testing teams, therefore it is more of a “package offering” than Playwright. However, testers are limited by the current test runner infrastructure.
In contrast, Playwright doesn’t generate files and gives you the freedom to use any test runner framework you like. The playwright has more customization options than Cypress and is compatible with more browsers. Let’s have a look at the differences and similarities between these two methods.
Recommendations for Runners
Cypress and Playwright provide their own runner implementation. The playwright automation testing tool is also flexible enough to work with other runners, such as JUnit or Jest. To my knowledge, Cypress does not offer this.
Playwright is the best option because it offers the most customization options and allows us to recycle our existing runners from previous test levels.
Compatibility
It’s important to include cross-domain support in our tests. It is common practice for many of the applications to use external authentication services, such as Azure Active Directory, to verify user identities. In contrast to Selenium and Playwright, Cypress is not built to support cross-origin. That’s why the latter two options are preferable in that situation.
Able to Open Multiple Tabs
Playwright supports tests with many tabs, unlike Cypress. This is why Selenium and Playwright work so well together.
Performance
In order to decide which option between Cypress and Playwright is better, we conducted some basic internal benchmark tests. Playwright was the fastest of the languages we tested, followed by Cypress and Selenium. We should note that the simplicity of our experiments means they are probably not typical of every possible circumstance. We also investigated third-party performance monitoring tools like checkly. Using the report’s findings, we determined that Playwright was the best option for our requirements.
Allows Users to Easily Move Items Using a Drag and Drop Interface
Drag-and-drop solutions are available in both of these programs. But Playwright offers the most convenient solution. The function is quite basic, with just two parameters: a draggable selection and a drop area selector. We think the playwright method fits best because it is the simplest to implement.
Dynamic Wait
For us, “dynamic wait” refers to the time spent waiting for an event to be confirmed as true. If the evaluation of the event cannot be completed in a certain amount of time, then the event will be considered false.
The fluid wait structure is at the heart of both Cypress and Playwright. When interacting with elements, it is relied on by all of their API actions. There are ways to accomplish this with Selenium, but they generate far more code. Because of this, Cypress and Playwright are the superior options in that field.
Static wait
Static wait refers to the ability to pause the test execution for a specified amount of time. Both Selenium and Cypress have built-in answers to this problem. It’s also achievable on Playwright, but only with the use of trickery. More appropriate elements would be selenium or cypress.
Selection for Individual Elements
There, you’ll find a collection of selectors for UI elements. Selectors based on xpath, CSS, text, and custom syntax are all supported by the three options for speedy element localization. As an added bonus, all tools make combining selections simple. That’s why we can use them all.
Testing in parallel
We need a system that can run tests in parallel to speed up the execution time. Both Playwright and Cypress’s professional edition are capable of this. Utilizing external tools like TestNG, Selenium can accomplish this. Sorry Cypress is an open-source project that allows us to do parallel testing for Cypress without a paid subscription. No specific tool is needed because they can all meet the criteria.
Documentation
Having images and even videos of test execution can help with documentation and reduce uncertainty when attempting to understand why a test failed. These features are standard issue in Cypress and Playwright. There are add-ons available for Selenium. So, it seems like any instrument would fit nicely here.
Support for Web Kit
Although it is a very new framework, Playwright has extensive built-in support from Microsoft and its environment. It already has features like cross-platform support that put it on par with industry leaders. While Playwright’s compatibility with WebKit is not a distinctive feature, it is one of the few frameworks that offer it. You can do a lot more than you could with previous frameworks thanks to WebKit, the engine that drives the Safari browser.
Methodological Framework for testing
Selenium and Playwright, in contrast to Cypress, have APIs available in several languages. Java, JavaScript, and Python are required in many cases. In this case, Playwright is the preferable option.
Headless by default
You may have noticed that Playwright, by default, runs tests headlessly; this is because you typically don’t need to remotely view tests running in the browser. Also, if a test fails, Playwright will present nice test results in the browser outlining the issues.
Our verdict
If you’re just getting started with web development and are looking for something straightforward, Cypress is your best bet. Not as useful for gathering evidence of test results as network capture or video capture, but great for screenshots. Cypress has substantial documentation and community support, making it simple to work around any obstacles you may have.
Microsoft Playwright is a high-quality product with a robust support staff because it was created by Microsoft Corporation. When testing Web Kit and Chromium with Dev Tool Protocols, or when your scenarios span many pages and websites, the Playwright is your best bet.
If you are looking for testing solutions across Playwright and Cypress, then Lambda Test can be your best assistance. With 40+ browser versions on the cloud, Lambda Test let’s you execute and Analysis Cypress testing scripts online and deploy quality builds faster. You can also use the Lambda Test Cloud to run your Playwright test scripts instantly on 50+ browser and OS combinations. Furthermore, it allows you to run Playwright testing in parallel to significantly reduce test execution time.
FAQs
Why is Playwright better than Cypress? ›
While both frameworks have different ways of running tests, Playwright's promise-based system has the advantage of being able to support multiple browsers and users' contexts simultaneously. This makes it more flexible and efficient than Cypress, which needs to be re-run for each different browser option.
What are the advantages of Playwright? ›Besides JavaScript, Playwright also supports multiple programming languages such as Python, Java, and . NET C#, giving more options to QAs writing test scripts. It is highly useful for cross-browser testing on complex applications due to its wide coverage, accuracy, and high speed.
What is the difference between Cypress and Playwright component testing? ›In a snapshot, both Playwright and Cypress are open-source and support automated app testing. Cypress supports JavaScript, whereas Playwright supports multiple languages such as JavaScript, Java, Python, and . NET C#.
What is the difference between Cypress and Playwright parallel? ›Cypress supports parallel testing across multiple browsers. Playwright supports parallel testing across multiple browsers and provides full support for free. Cypress supports headless mode for running tests without a visible browser. Playwright supports headless mode for running tests without a visible browser.
What is the difference between Cypress and Playwright? ›Cypress: What's the Difference? The main difference between Playwright vs. Cypress is that Playwright mimics mobile factors to test web apps on mobile screens while Cypress is primarily a web test automation solution. Cypress supports JavaScript and Playwright supports multiple languages.
Which is faster Playwright or Cypress? ›We can see that the difference between Cypress and the other tools is now considerably lower, with the mean execution time over 1000 executions being just ~3% slower compared to WebDriverIO+Selenium (the slowest tool in this run), and ~23% slower compared to Playwright (the fastest).
What are the pros and cons of being a playwright? ›The pros and cons of playwrighting include being part of an incredible and excited community of theatre makers. Theatre brings you into close contact with fans, and playwrights also typically receive 10% of box office. The cons include the incredible difficulty of breaking in.
What are the features of playwright? ›Playwright is a solid test automation framework that allows you to perform end-to-end testing across major browsers. It is equipped with multiple features, such as resiliency, auto-wait, capturing test trace, and so on, supported with BrowserStack.
What is playwright used for? ›Playwright is built to enable cross-browser web automation that is evergreen, capable, reliable, and fast. Because Microsoft Edge is built on the open-source Chromium web platform, Playwright is also able to automate Microsoft Edge. Playwright launches headless browsers by default.
Can Playwright be used for API testing? ›Playwright can be used to get access to the REST API of your application. Sometimes you may want to send requests to the server directly from Node. js without loading a page and running js code in it.
Is Cypress enough for testing? ›
The architectural improvements in Cypress empower testers with the ability to perform Test-Driven Development (TDD) with complete end to end testing. Cypress is developed with the intent to make development and testing a parallel process. Note: Cypress scripts cannot be executed outside the browser like in Selenium.
What are the advantages of Cypress testing tool? ›- Cypress Is More Universal. ...
- Cypress Automation Is Simple to Set Up. ...
- Cypress Has Debugging Capabilities. ...
- Cypress Automation Offers Fast Test Execution. ...
- Cypress Has an Active Community.
Cypress ran the test in 3 seconds, whilst Playwright slightly beat that by completing the test in 2.33 seconds. Essentially it means that both run the test fast, and whilst Playwright was somewhat quicker, it's not that big of a difference that it should affect your choice of framework.
How does Cypress make writing tests faster? ›Cypress will automatically balance your spec files across the available machines in your CI provider. Cypress calculates which spec file to run based on the data collected from previous runs. This ensures that your spec files run as fast as possible, with no need for manual configuration.
What is the difference between Playwright and Selenium? ›Playwright: Supports TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, . NET, and Java. Selenium: Supports a wider range of programming languages than Playwright, including Python, Java, C#, Ruby, and JavaScript. This versatility enables developers from different programming backgrounds to use the tool in their preferred language.
What is the difference between a Playwright? ›A person who writes plays is a playwright, not a playwrite, but the act of writing plays is usually spelled playwriting. The wright in the compound noun playwright is a little-used word referring to one who constructs or repairs something.
What are the two types of cypress? ›There are two varieties of cypress commonly found throughout the Southeast: bald cypress and pond cypress. Both are deciduous conifers, shedding their leaves and cones in the fall, and both are known for their tolerance of wet sites and their root outgrowths known as "knees."
Why is Playwright faster? ›Playwright receives browser signals, like network requests, page navigations and page load events to eliminate the need for sleep timeouts that cause flakiness. Fast isolation with browser contexts. Reuse a single browser instance for multiple isolated execution environments with browser contexts.
What language is best for Playwright? ›Playwright works with some of the most popular programming languages, including JavaScript, Python, Java, and C#. It also supports Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit, providing a wide range of cross-browser testing capabilities.
Is Playwright easier than Selenium? ›Playwright is a tool for end-to-end testing of web applications. It is similar to other testing tools like Selenium, but it is designed to be faster and easier to use.
What are 3 important skills a playwright needs to write a successful play? ›
- Literature skills.
- Computer/IT skills.
- Proof-reading skills.
- Ability to listen and understand guidelines.
- Creative thinking.
- Imaginative ideas.
- Time management.
- Self-motivation.
Playwriting is about storytelling—creating a world and characters from scratch and capturing listeners with their story—but it's also about live performance; in fact, it's this critical element that separates playwrights from novelists or screenwriters.
What are the two skills that a playwright must possess? ›They must have a creative, original, engaging story with good writing and dialogue, exemplary grammar and spelling, and correct stage directions and overall formatting. If a playwright wants to take their script to the stage, they need to confirm whether or not their idea is marketable.
What are the two types of playwright? ›Categories of Dramatists/Playwright
Classical/universal dramatists. Modern dramatists.
The story is told through the characters' dialogue and actions which the playwright puts into play's script. Three famous playwrights of the 20th century are Tennessee Williams, Neil Simons, and Arthur Miller. Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire. Marlon Brando played Stanley in the film adaptation.
What are the essential tools of the playwright? ›Unlike standard literature, where the writer can explain and describe the who, what, when, where, how and why of a story using long passages of descriptive narrative, the playwright has only three basic tools at their disposal: dialogue, stage directions and structure.
What are the disadvantages of Playwright? ›- Playwright does not support legacy Microsoft Edge or IE11.
- A single test() function captures screenshots, videos, and failure traces. ...
- Playwright uses desktop browsers instead of real devices to emulate mobile devices.
Playwright Test runs tests in parallel. In order to achieve that, it runs several worker processes that run at the same time. By default, test files are run in parallel. Tests in a single file are run in order, in the same worker process.
What is the difference between Playwright and TestProject? ›Playwright Test supports running multiple test projects at the same time. This is useful for running tests in multiple configurations. For example, consider running tests against multiple browsers. TestProject encapsulates configuration specific to a single project.
What are the cons of Cypress? ›One of the main drawbacks of Cypress is that it only supports Chrome and Firefox browsers, which means you cannot test your app on other browsers like Safari, Edge, or Internet Explorer.
What is the limitation of Cypress testing? ›
Cypress commands run inside of a browser. There will never be support for multiple browser tabs. You cannot use Cypress to drive two browsers at the same time. Each test is bound to a single superdomain.
Is Cypress used for functional testing? ›Using Cypress' intercept feature helps us with testing our application in a controlled environment. This way, we can test its functionality and how its components communicate with each other.
Is Cypress used for backend testing? ›Cypress is a free, open-source, locally installed Test Runner and Dashboard Service for recording your tests. It is a frontend and backend test automation tool built for the next generation of modern web applications. It is useful for developers as well as QA engineers to test real-life applications developed in React.
Can Cypress replace Selenium? ›As a result, Cypress is the winner for its ease of use and faster execution, but it cannot replace Selenium completely, nor can it be used alongside Selenium. Selenium also supports the biggest projects, running thousands of tests.
How do you run a Playwright script? ›- Choose between TypeScript or JavaScript (default is TypeScript)
- Name of your Tests folder (default is tests or e2e if you already have a tests folder in your project)
- Add a GitHub Actions workflow to easily run tests on CI.
Playwright: Cross-browser support is one of the Playwright's major advantages for web scraping. Playwright may be a better option if you need to extract a significant amount of web data. Puppeteer: It focuses solely on JavaScript. If you are unfamiliar with JavaScript or prefer not to use it to build a web scraper.
How fast is Selenium vs Playwright? ›Findings. For this simple test scenario, Selenium WebDriver is about 5% faster than Playwright for both the raw and Page Object Model versions. The difference is minor, after taking out variances (network latency at the time and web page content), I would say they are on par, in terms of test execution speed.
How do I improve my Cypress performance? ›- Set a baseUrl: ...
- Use aliases in cy.wait() ...
- Avoid visiting external sites while test execution. ...
- Avoid coupling of tests. ...
- Using hooks the right way. ...
- Incorporate Cypress into your Continuous Integration and cloud testing plan.
Cypress tests were run over 30 times a day with close to a 99% pass rate.
How do you make Cypress type faster? ›Use {delay: 0} to quickly enter the text in Cypress
Setting the delay option to 0 may cause the text to be entered faster than a user could realistically type it, so you should use this option cautiously.
Is playwright good for web scraping? ›
Playwright is a browser automation framework with APIs available in Javascript, Python, . NET, and Java. Its simplicity and powerful automation capabilities make it an ideal tool for web scraping. It also comes with headless browser support.
What is the difference between robot framework and playwright? ›When going with Robot Framework Browser (and thus Robot Framework), you enable all kinds of automation just in case you need it. With plain Playwright, you limit yourself to web automation. If your projects grow outside web applications, choosing Robot Framework will allow you to automate those parts, too.
Can we use XPath in playwright? ›Playwright supports CSS and XPath selectors, and auto-detects them if you omit css= or xpath= prefix.
Why use Playwright instead of Selenium? ›Playwright generally offers better performance and speed compared to Selenium due to its easy-to-use API, auto-waiting capabilities, etc.
Why use Playwright automation? ›Playwright is built to enable cross-browser web automation that is evergreen, capable, reliable, and fast. Because Microsoft Edge is built on the open-source Chromium web platform, Playwright is also able to automate Microsoft Edge. Playwright launches headless browsers by default.
Is Playwright good for scraping? ›Playwright is a browser automation framework with APIs available in Javascript, Python, . NET, and Java. Its simplicity and powerful automation capabilities make it an ideal tool for web scraping. It also comes with headless browser support.
What language is Playwright recommended for? ›Multi-Language Support: Playwright supports Java, C#, Python, Javascript/ Typescript making it a popular choice. Most of the modern open-source test automation frameworks miss this feature. Types of Testing: Playwright supports Functional, End to End, and API Testing.
Can Playwright be used for performance testing? ›Playwright is an open-source testing framework that allows you to automate testing of web applications across different browsers and platforms. While Playwright is well-suited for functional testing, it doesn't come with built-in performance testing capabilities.
What is the difference between robot framework and Playwright? ›When going with Robot Framework Browser (and thus Robot Framework), you enable all kinds of automation just in case you need it. With plain Playwright, you limit yourself to web automation. If your projects grow outside web applications, choosing Robot Framework will allow you to automate those parts, too.
What are the challenges in Playwright automation? ›The common challenges we face while automating are slowness of test execution, unreliable wait scenarios, the need to write a lot of boiler-plate code for browser setup, and parallel execution, etc.
How does Playwright tool work? ›
Playwright works on three core concepts: browser, context, and page. Browser: To run the tests, you must initiate the browser. Using Playwright, you can use the object of the Browser class, an instance of Chromium, Firefox, or Webkit. Context: The Playwright framework achieves parallelization using browser contexts.
What can you do with Playwright? ›- Any browser. • Any platform. • ...
- Resilient. • No flaky tests. Auto-wait. ...
- No trade-offs. • No limits. ...
- Full isolation. • Fast execution. ...
- Powerful Tooling. Codegen. Generate tests by recording your actions.
Playwright currently supports drag-and-drop interactions via the locator.
What are Playwright tools? ›The Playwright creators describe the tool as a framework for web testing and automation. It allows testing MS Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari with a single API. Playwright is built to enable cross-browser web automation that is capable, reliable, and fast.
Which companies use Playwright? ›| Company Name | Website | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Northrop Grumman | northropgrumman.com | (703) 280-2900 |
| WCIRB | wcirb.com | (415) 777-0777 |
| SubjectWell | subjectwell.com | (512) 691-9073 |
| NAVEX Global | navexglobal.com | (866) 297-0224 |
Configure Browsers Playwright can run tests on Chromium, WebKit and Firefox browsers as well as branded browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
What are the prerequisites for Playwright? ›- Node.js 16+
- Windows 10+, Windows Server 2016+ or Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
- MacOS 12 Monterey or MacOS 13 Ventura.
- Debian 11, Ubuntu 20.04 or Ubuntu 22.04.